ACID WITCH

ACID WITCH “Rot Among Us”

By Dr. Abner Mality

By the time you read this, I’m betting Halloween has come and gone. You can bet your grinning pumpkin that the newest ACID WITCH album came out precisely on All Hallow’s Eve. No band that I know of is more devoted to the October holiday than these Michigan maniacs.

Their last album “Evil Sound Screamers” saw them somewhat cleaning up their formerly grungy and rotten sound, adding layers of spookshow synth and cleaner guitar tones. Surprisingly, “Rot Among Us” seems a slight step back. The synths are still quite prevalent and there’s a kooky cartoony feeling to songs like “Gather Each Witch” and “Gundella The Green Witch”, but cuts like the title track, “The Sleeper” and “Devil Night’s Doom” are mighty heavy doom death. “The Sleeper” has got to be one of the catchiest and most straightforward riff-fests ACID WITCH has even done, with an evil groove than even a lot of stoner rockers could get into. “Psychadeathic Swampgnosis” brings plenty of acid-soaked guitar effects and swampy, grungy crush to the party.

Slasher Dave and cohorts are truly one of the more unique bands in the extreme music scene. I don’t know anybody else who is doing horror movie metal like “Chelsea Didn’t Come Home Last Night”. If some of it sounds a little silly at times, that’s just part of the fun as well. I prefer “Rot Among Us” to “Evil Sound Screamers” by a good length.

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ACID WITCH